Meet Our People A Day in Life Of...

5.30pm It's the end of a day in the office, but our working day is far from over - we're off to do a bat survey near Bedford. All British bat species are fully protected and it's an offence to disturb, obstruct access to, damage or destroy a roost site. Tonight we're off to look for bats at a building that's up for redevelopment. We catch the train, drop our stuff off at a bed and breakfast and go to the site to set up.

9pm After a break for supper we're back at the site - we like to start the survey half-an-hour before sunset. Bats are most active in the summer as there are more insects around for them to feed on. Luckily the weather's good tonight so there will be lots of insects around to encourage activity. We watch the building's roof especially carefully as bats generally come from nooks and crannies where it's dry and warm. Each bat has a different call - we use bat detectors that record their calls and convert them into sounds humans can hear. I did my thesis on pipistrelles, the most common bats in Britain, which are about the size of an adult's thumb.

11pm A standard bat survey ends about one-and-a-half hours after sunset. We've only seen one male bat come out of the building tonight, although there are lots flying around. We go back to the B&B to get a few hours' sleep.

3.15am The alarm goes off and I head off back to the site. It's easier to see the bats come back: you can follow them in. We see our male return - he might only stay for one or two nights and then move on. The males move around in the summer while the females set up maternity colonies.

5.30am The sun has risen and we go back to the B&B for a couple more hours' sleep. It's not so bad - if we were working in Aberdeen I wouldn't get any sleep at all!

9am After breakfast we go back to the site to collect the Anabat data-logger that we'd left in the building about a week ago to record and log any bat calls.

10am We're on our way back to the office to have a look at our recordings. They confirm what we'd already found - that there was very little bat activity in the building. Good news for the developer! When there are lots of bats, you have to provide somewhere for them to go before you start construction. Some people design a special bat-friendly building that looks like a roof on stilts.

3pm I've tried to get a bit of rest at work because we're off again now to do another survey. This time it's to see whether there are any great-crested newts at a site near Tilbury, Essex, that's due for redevelopment. Newt surveys involve a lot more equipment - we have about 20 two-litre bottles with us, plus some very powerful torches to shine on the newts.

6pm We set up the site, placing the bottles in ditches. The newts will swim in and not be able to get out, but we'll release them after a few hours. Luckily the site is on private land - sometimes members of the public think we're up to no good and call the police, or even come and tidy up the bottles! So it's going to be another late night and an early morning. Luckily we get to catch up on our sleep in the winter!

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